
QassiAlZ 



Book. 



fn 



/^^^l>€ji^//Lc-^ii^ 



A IJlscolLiSK *!« 



u. 



ON rilK DKA'IMI OK 



PRE SI DENT LINCOLN. 



J^> 



.\ 



A DISCOURSE 



PREACHED BY 



REV. A. B. DASCOMB, 



TO HIS PEOPLE AT WAITSFIELD, YT., 



IN HONOR OF OUR LATE 



CHIEF MAOISTEATE, 



ON SUNDAY, APRIL 23, 1! 



PTIBLISHKD BY REQUEST. 



MONTPELIER: 
WALTON'S STEAM PRINTING ESTABLISHMENT. 

1865. 



Hz 



398 

C'y. -ti^' 

"vl> OF wAsm^^^^v-^ 



DISCOUESE 



"The beauty of Iskael is slaen* upon thy 
HIGH places: how are the mighty fallexI tell 

IT not in- GaTH, publish it not IX THE STEEETS 

OF Askelon; lest the daughters of THE Philis- 
tines REJOICE, LEST THE DAUGHTERS OF THE UXCIK- 

CUMCISED TRIUMPH." — //. Samuel, 1: 19, 20. 

King Saul had reigned over Israel for the space 
of forty years wlien he went out to fight once more 
against the PhiHstines. The army of Israel was de- 
feated, Saul's sons were slain and he himself was 
wounded and in despair fell upon his own sword and 
ended his life. The intelligence soon reached David 
that Saul and Jonathan were dead. It made David sad 
in heart. He gives expression to his sorrow in the 
language which I read a few moments ago in your 
hearing, a part of which I have just repeated. It is 
tender, beautiful, patriotic. '' The beauty of Israel is 
slain upon thy high places: how are the mighty fal- 
len!'' Gath and Askelon were cities of their constant 
and ever active enemies, the Philistines. He adds. 
Tell not the news in Gath, publish it not in the streets 
of Askelon, lest their inhabitants rejoice. Me kne\\ 
they would exult over that which pained him and liis 
countrymen. David loved his country and respected 
its uler, regarding him as God's anointed, and hi- 
sen, itive heart could not bear to have anv exult o\er 



4: Discourse on the 

the defeat of his coimtiymen or the death of one or 
more of their chief men. 

Withont dwelKng longer upon the occasion that 
prompted the words I have quoted from David when 
he learned of the death of his sovereign, I hasten to 
say that the language of this lamentation is expressive 
of the emotions of our hearts at this time. We feel 
like saying, " The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy 
high places : how are the mighty fallen ! tell it not in 
Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon, lest the 
daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters 
of the uncircumcised triumph." Our noble, beloved 
and honored President has fallen. He, whose life was 
most esteemed and beautiful in the extreme, has been 
slain by the hand of the assassin. The Man of Might, 
at Avhose call two million of liberty-loving, hei'oic, 
patriotic men have rushed to arms against the rebel- 
lious enemies of their government, and under whose 
wise counsels and prudent management the nation has 
gone triumphantly through a civil war of unexampled 
magnitude, is now dead. How is the mighty faren? 
Tell it not to our enemies. If there be still a Gath or 
an Askelon in the territory of rebellion, let not their 
inhabitants know of this calamity which has befallen us. 
Let not the enemies of the Republic have one moment 
of triumph, even in their feelings. Let them not know 
what tJiey liave done; for I doubt not the arch traitor 
and official head of the rebel government has shared 
with the murderer of our President and his accomplices 
in a tragedy intended to be more extended and fatal, 
the last coin stolen from their sinking and now sunken 



Death of President Lincoln. 5 

confederate treasury — shared it with them that they 
might perpetrate this awful crime. 

Our land mourns ; a nation is plunged in tears, 
l^ever has our country been plunged so deeply and 
suddenly into sadness as recently when the message 
went SAviftly over the electric wires and from tongue 
to tongue — "President Lincoln is shot — dead!" 

It was a sad time when — as you who are old remem- 
ber and have told us — sixty-five years ago the slow 
moving mail spread the news of the death of Washing- 
ton. But Washington's official life was closed and it 
was the remembrance of what he had done rather than 
what he was doing or might do for his country that 
filled the hearts of his countrymen with grief. There 
was sorrov/ in the land when, just twenty-four years 
ago this month, it was announced that the hero of 
Tippecanoe and the Thames, who one month before 
had been elevated from an honorable and iniblemished 
private life to the Presidential office, had breathed his 
last. It was, however, a party that took his death 
deeply to heart. The issues at stake were important, 
not vital. Again, fifteen years since, when we had 
hardly ceased to celebrate the birth-day of the nation, 
we were shocked to hear without previous warning 
that another President held strongly in the hearts of 
the people had ceased to live. It W' as during Taylor's 
administration that threats of disunion and civil war 
began to grow loiul and frequent. He was a southern 
man by birth and education and a promment slave- 
owner, yet when turbulent members of Congress visit- 
ed him with threats of civil war upon their lips, he as- 



6 Discourse on the 

sured them that if the standard of revolt was raised 
he himself would take the field to suppress it. Hence 
he died to the regret of every lover of his whole coun- 
try. But there was no crisis and no one would claim 
that his abilities were transcendant. Within the last 
four years many a grievous blow has fallen upon the 
country. When Sumpter's flag was lowered we should 
have wept had we not been wisely mad. When our 
troops hastened in defeat from off the field of Bull 
Kun once and again ; when Fredericksburgh and Char- 
lottesville were the bloody scenes of repulse to our ar- 
mies; and at other times our hearts have well nigh 
sunk within us: yet, conscious of rectitude, self reli- 
ant, trusting in the God of Bight, excited, determined, 
the edge of grief was dulled. I repeat, never was the 
nation so suddenly and deeply plunged in grief as 
when a few days since we learned of the atrocious 
murder of our beloved Chief Magistrate. Standing 
calmly at the helm, the tempest raging with the utmost 
fury, the ship of state almost broken in twain, he had 
guided her with magic hand through the height of the 
storm; he had won our confidence and affection; and 
now as the winds began to lull and the mad waves to 
be quiet, the ship, the while approaching the shallow 
sea near the shore and haven where skill and wisdom 
were still needed, while our eager eye was looking 
with interest and yet with quiet confidence to the trust- 
ed helmsman, we see him fall — his strong arm, his 
steady eye, his calm and active brain paralyzed by 
death. We are stunned, grieved, well nigh dismayed. 
Our country has met an irreparable loss in the death 



Death of President Lincoln. 7 

of the plain appearing, pure hearted and wise acting 
statesman and public servant, Abraham Lincoln, 
the late re-elected and re-inaugurated President of 
the United States. 

A great and good man is dead. There are many 
good men in the nation. There are many distinguished 
men ; there are a few wise and great men ; of very few 
can it be said they are great and good. He was one 
of the most illustrious examples of virtue that the high- 
est circles of the nation have ever exhibited. This is 
not the language of fulsome adulation — -of exaggerated 
praise. I believe it to be the deliberately formed con- 
viction of the American people ; hence it is well that 
we mourn: it is no wonder that we feel staggered by 
the sudden blow fallen at such a time. 

When fifty years since the Princess Charlotte, a 
lady of distinguished virtue, heiress to the throne of 
England and highly endeared to the English people, 
was suddenly stricken doA^oi, Pev. Robert Hall in a 
sermon occasioned by her untimely death used the fol- 
lowing language, which is strikingly appropriate to 
this hour. " In the private departments of life the dis- 
tressing incidents which occur are confined to a narrow 
circle. The hope of an individual is crushed, the hap- 
piness of a family is destroyed ; but the social system 
is unimpaired and its movements experience no imped- 
iment and sustain no sensible injury. The arrow pass- 
es through the air which closes upon it and all is tran- 
quil. But when the great lights and ornaments of 
the world are extinguished, such an event resembles 
the apocalyptic vial poured into that element which 



8 Discourse on the 

changes its whole atmosphere, and is the jorestige of 
fearfnl commotions, of thunders, lightnings and tem- 
pests." 

What the result to our nation shall be from this 
fearful tragedy no mortal can tell. We fear; yet hope, 
ever ready to shine into the sorrowing heart, even now 
with feeble ray beams upon us, and the prayer is ours 
that good, not evil, shall accrue to the land under the 
overruling of a merciful Clod, who is able to bring- 
good out of evil. 

The excellencies of Abraham Lincoln in mind and 
heart were many and great. Occupying the exalted 
position he did in the eye of the nation and the world, 
they shine with unusual brightness. We have looked 
upon him for the past four years as we* look upon the 
highest mountain peak in sight, towering above all 
others in solemn grandeur, first in the morning and 
last in the evening to receive the illuminating rays of 
the rising and setting sun : he has been the most ex- 
alted and, at the same time, the most virtuous of the 
distinguished men in the executive arm of the nation. 
There are some men who have been for a much longer 
time before the eyes of the people than has our mar- 
tyred President whose virtues you would find it hard 
to name, even though you could not name their vices, or 
though they have none. N^ot so with him. His virtues 
were prominent ; the salient points of his character are 
evident to us all, though he was by no means an angu- 
lar, eccentric man. As a whole his character is round- 
ed, symmetrical and beautiful to behold, like the full 
orbed resplendent moon, its edges not ragged but 



Death of President Lincoln. 

smooth. His greatness consisted not in the extraor- 
dinary developement of any one faculty or attribute to 
the neglect of others, but in a foir and healthy growl li 
of all the elements that make a man in the highest 
sense of the term. He was not like Everett, tlie most 
finished ol' scholai-s; not like Choate, tlie shrewdest ol' 
laAvyers ; not like Webster, the prince oCoratois ; nol 
like Jefferson, the most adroit of politicians; nor liki- 
Hamilton, most brilliant and accom])nshe(l of statesmen : 
he was rather hke Washington, an eminently clear 
headed, true hearted, sensible and piaetleal man, ivho 
did every thing welt. 

Edward Everett, in his famons oration upon Wash- 
ington, names these foiu' qualities as belonging to him, 
viz.: prudence, modesty, justice and common sense. 
Without doubt three of these characterized Mr. Lin- 
coln. Perhaps the other also,— justice ; we fear not, 
however. It was easier for him to be gentle, patient, 
forgiving, than just toward his enemies and the enemies 
of the government— those upon whom he should visit 
the severest penalties of the law. But I am out of my 
province here. Let others better acquainted with the 
work he did and more capable of judging portray his 
mental and practical abilities. I purpose to call atten- 
tion to a few traits of his moral and religious character. 
It is my privilege in this sacred place and upon this 
holy day to direct attention to whatever may be highly 
commended and wisely imitated by those who would 
daily strive to make mankind better and happier, while 
they live in view of a blessed immortality. The first 
trait that I name may perhaps be said to lie outside the 



lO JJisroffrsf on fht- 

re;! I] I) ! \\\\\v mdieatcd and not strictly to l)clong to his 
nio.i-a! ()]■ I'c'Hgions nature. If this 1)e true, which 1 
(lou])t, it lies so near the borders that I cannot pass it 
hv. I I'cfer to his simpUcity. This manifestly distin- 
giiislied his language and manner and habits of life. 
^Fhere was nothing pretentions about him. Bad men, 
shallow men, vain men, are obliged to counterfeit 
themsehes. They put on airs ; they gild themselves. 
I'he great and good may be open, unaifected, luia- 
dorned. Our Saviour, the greatest and best of men, 
w as the j)!aiuest and simplest in his manner of speech 
and life. Promotion inflates many men. It had no 
such etfect ui)on our late revered President. He was 
as easy, natural and approachable when the official 
head of a vast and powerful nation as when in 1831 he 
was assisting in conducting a flat boat down the Mis- 
sissippi to Xew Orleans. 

It will not be long before the artists will have one 
scene in his remarkable life on canvas. It is one of 
the siiblimest ever witnessed. Had a king or emperoi' 
nl'tlie old world occasion to enter the capital of a re- 
captured or conquered provuice or nation, as President 
Lincoln had occasion to enter Kichmond, it would havc> 
Ikhmi V ith all the pomp and magnticence that abundant 
{rea.>t!i-cs and an inventive brain could provide — in 
gi'and, jnartial and ti'iumphal jJi'Ocession. IIow did he 
enter it ? Leading his pet boy by the hand, in com|)a- 
ii\ with an ofhcer or two of the army and navy, a half 
do/ei! maiines on either side, he '?(?r^?y(',sMnto the proud 
vWy that has 1)een (he strong defence and. citadel of re- 
bellion, the seat of official traitors, for four long and 



Death of President Lincoln. 11 

bloody years. It is li-uc that many of the ]iuni1)le(l yet 
haughty aristoerats oi" the eity look with undisguisi-d 
(•()iiteiii])t upon the seeiie; hut they ai'e uot ail. Sec 
the dusky crovvd throng tlie way ; see theii- cagef 
eountenances as they behokl their I'l 'i end ; sic tlieir 
tears of joy ; hear tiieir sini])le hmgiiage oi' pi-jiisc and 
rejoieing. It seems as if angels, il* they ever weep, 
must have Avept at that seene. J verily hciicve that 
no grander sight of like kind was ever witnessed shnc 
when our glorious Redeemer eighteen hundred yrar-- 
ago entered the eapital of Judea over streets >ti(«\\ ii 
with garments and 1)ranehes of palm trees hy ;; ci-owd 
which, as he passed along, shouted in vvild delight, 
"Blessed is he that eometh in the name of the I^oi-d ; 
Hosanna in the highest/' The great and good can 
atford to be unostentatious. 

Again, it indicates strength of mind and heart and 
large self-control wdien a person in the highest oiHcial 
and fashionable circles preserves the more simple hab- 
its of humble and rural life. In our country, espt'c-ially 
in its capita], the temptations to a luxurious, ini[)ur(' 
and intemperate life are such that few of our j)ron!ineul 
men have been able to resist them. liis distinguished 
rival for political honors in Illinois once taunted him 
for having in early life sold him li<[Uor. " 'rrue," re- 
plied Mr. Lincoln, ''l^ut I have reformed since and yoi; 
haven't." .1 reform in this habit in view of or dui'ing 
political life is a rarity. N^o stain, however, rests upon 
his character. He was a strictly tem])erate man in this 
respect. His brain was never i'xcited, confused oi' 
stinmlated by the ])oisoning winc-cu]). The c-orrupi 



12 t)iscourse on the 

society of Washington never contaminated him in the 
least. He Avas equally plain and temperate in all he 
did and said. In the highest place in the land he set 
an example that all in exalted or private life may well 
follow. ''"With the lowly is wisdom." 

Abraham Lincoln w^as a man of strict and uniform 
integrity. It was said of him before he was raised to 
the highest office in the executive that he was an hon- 
est man. He has lived for more than four years in 
the eye of millions of liis fellow men—his countrymen 
and those of foreign lands— and now without hesitation 
or reservation all exclaim, " an honest man has died ;" 
one, as the poet Pope has it, of the " noblest woi'ks of 
God." We have never known or even suspected, so 
transparent has been his life, that he ever gave or re- 
ceived a bribe ; that to accomplish any purpose he ev- 
er used the least deceit to friend or foe. Though he 
was shrewd, he Avas prudent and wise, and never en- 
tered the boundaries of hm'tful deceit and dishonest}- . 
It was his custom to keep his own counsels till ready 
to act. We have sometimes waited in anxious sus- 
pense to know^ how he would act in a given emergency. 
We have Avatched his words and acts. We have 
sometimes thought we have ])een deceived and that he 
had no idea of doing Avhat it pi-oved he had already 
determined to do. You remember that when he was 
waited ii])on in the sunnner of 1862 by a dejnitation of 
western clergymen, who urged him to issue a procla- 
mation ol' emancipation, he proposed arguments seem- 
ingly against it for them to answer. They went away 
somewhat disappointed. Many others were made de- 



Dtatli of President Lincoln. 13 

spondent thereby. It soon after came to light that he 
ah-eady had the proclamatioil prepared, and was only 
waiting an appropriate opportunity I'or its promulga- 
tion. His course was prompted by no desire or in- 
tent to deceive, but by prudence and wisdom. He 
wished to receive the utmost light before entering 
upon a most momentous work. He was a man of the 
purest rectitude ; a man of trath, uprightness and hon- 
esty. " The just man Avalketh in his integrity ; his 
children are blessed after him." 

Another bright star in his crown of virtue was his 
humanity. He was a humane man. The w^ord hu- 
mane comes from a word meaning man, but it reall}' 
means a divine quality. The tendency of men when 
left to themselves is the direction opposite to tender- 
ness and benevolence. Man degenerates from the Di- 
vine Being in the garden of Eden to the ci'uel, selfish, 
brutal savage: a type of humanity illustrated in the 
black-hearted assassin who murdered Abraham Lin- 
coln, and in the red savage who murdered iiis gr;ind- 
father in the forests of Jventucky in 1784. Strange it 
is that we lind the highest tyjie of humanity in no man 
that ever lived but in the Divine Son of God and Juan 
—Jesus, our Saviour. His life on eartli was a perfect 
illustration of gentleness, kindness, tenderness, in 
short, of humanity. Humane means not what man is, 
but what he onght to l)e. It is a (luarily conspicuous 
in the character of oiu- late lamented President. It is, 
in one phase of it, touchingly evinced in the pleasure 
he took in the company of his young son, whom he 
loved to lead witli him in his walks, and to have in his 



14 Disco^irse on the 

presence even when holding interviews with distin- 
gnished men and prominent home and foreign offi- 
cials, thns showing the kind, thoiightfnl father, right 
under the pressing " cares of eni|)ires/' He Avas dis- 
posed to treat all men as children or brethren, accord- 
ing to their relation to him. In the remarks he made 
in response to the speech of welcome from the mayor 
of Washington, just before entering upon the duties 
of the |)residential ofhce, — and when he said it, he 
meant the whole South, — '' I have never had any other 
than as kindly feelings tov/ards you as the people of 
my own section. I have no disposition to treat you in 
any other respect than as my neighbors." It was not 
like him to inflict pain upon a single mortal if i)ossi- 
ble, though he found it necessary to put his foot, and 
to '' ])ut it down firmly," upon the necks of traitors. 
It was well that he was of this superior make for sev- 
eral reasons. 

It was necessary that one shoidd occupy the highest 
otHce, in such a crisis in our history, that should, in 
the highest degree, win the affections of the whole 
people. It took away the last pretext for secession ; 
it prevented division at the ]S"orth, and gave no occa- 
sion for exasperation in any direction by reason of se- 
verity or cruelty. When he did a severe thing, all 
saw that it was a last resort, and could not complain. 

It was well that he was a humane man who held the 
power of the nation in his hands through such a time 
of suffering and distress. He gave the largest possi- 
ble opi^ortunity to every lienevolent enterprise that 
looked to the r(.'lief of the Avants and the alle\'iation of 



Death of President Lincoln. i.T 

the sufferings of the soldiers. lie hade the Christian 
and Sanitary Commissions God speed as they went to 
the camps, iiospitals and l)attlefiekls, to minister to the 
tempted, the sick, the wounded and the dying' soldiers. 
He forgot not the afflicted and bereaved at home. 
You remember that short letter that he found time to 
write to a mother who had lost several sons in the 
army, as he had learned. How it touched the heart 
of the nation, and wound hun into the hearts of the 
afflicted and distressed people! 

For still another reason was it well that Abraham 
Lincoln was humane. Four millions of Afric's sons 
and daughters were held in Southern bondage. It 
was largely on account of these that men became trai- 
tors and rebels. '■ Without slavery the rebellion could 
never have existed; without slavery it could not con- 
tinue.-' The cries of these oppressed ones had long 
and loud been heard in the land. Many were severely 
tried that thc}^ could not be made free, yet saw not 
I lie patli to liberty. Suddenly God himself opened 
tlie door through the madness of the leading men in 
the South. Kebelling against the govei-ninent, defy- 
ing all its powers, they and all who obeyed them for- 
feited all right to ]jrotection. The President was quick 
to see the opening gate of liberty to the enchained 
millions of Africans. His humane heart long moved, 
as his congressional history twenty years ago abun- 
dantly testifies, coukl now effectually act. As soon 
as he could do it with safety, when the mind of the 
people was sufficiently ripened to prevent a dangerous 
reaction, the blow is given. He speaks the word: the 



16 Discourse on tlie 

fetters of millions are l^roken, and they begin to walk 
the path of freedom. For this act of hnmanity as 
well as justice, philanthropists thank him. For this 
the disenthralled African race thank him, and rejoice 
with joy they cannot tell. The fatal ball, that pierced 
his brain, ])ierced their hearts more deej^ly, if 2:)0ssible, 
than ours. They mourn with unhushed and uncon- 
trolled lamentations. The freedmen will remember 
him to the last; their children and children's children 
will hear the story of their deliverance; the whole sa- 
ble race will regard him with the w^armest admiration; 
they will pay his memory such honors as tutelary 
divinities of old were wont to receive, and, in heaven, 
next to their Saviour from sin, the}^ will wish to see 
Abraham Lincoln, their deliverer from chains. The 
whole world will honor him as among the highest Ijeii- 
efactors of mankind. " He that oppresseth the poor 
reproacheth his Maker ; but he that honoreth Him hath 
mercy on the poor." 

Finally, I name as brightest in the diadem of virtues 
that crown his character, his fear of God. This, says 
the wise man, ""Is the beginning of wisdom." We 
have seen that he loved man ; he also feared and loved 
God. In the speech he made, as he left his home in 
Springfield for Washington, four years since, he said, 
" Pray for me that I ma}^ receive that Divine assist- 
ance, without which I cannot succeed, but with which 
success is certain." His language since has been 
equall}^ devout. What a deeply religious sentiment 
pei'vaded that brief and I'emarkable inaugural, whose 
sublime words have hardly yet died in our ears! How 



Death, of President Lincoln. 17 

ready he was in national adversity to Ijid us g(j down 
on our knees l3eforc the righteous God, to su})pUcate 
his iavor! How ready in success to ask us to give 
thanks to Ahnighty God for his tokens of favor to the 
peopk\ Surely he " acknoAvledged God in all his 
ways," and, as a fruit of it, God directed his patli. 

He not only asked us to worship the Lord, he him- 
self was a man of prayer. Let me repeat an incident 
or two that many of you have read. A gentlemnn 
had occasion to call upon him at the early hour of five 
in the morning. He heard a Ioav voice as of one con- 
versing in an adjoining room. On enquiry of a ser- 
valit, he learned that the President was in the exercise 
of devotion; and furthermore, that this was his cus- 
tom daily at that hour. A praying President ! Thank 
God that some good men stand in the high places of 
tlie land. -'Kot many great: not many mighty are 
called." 

Kot long since an Illinois clergyman, ^vhile aliout to 
visit the President, was directed by a Sabbatli School 
to ask him if he loved Jesus. The business conclud- 
ed, the question was faithfully presented. The reply 
ran something like this: -'When I left Springfield, 1 
asked the people to pray for me. i was not a Chris- 
tian. When T buried my son, tlie severest trial of my 
life, I was not a Christian. But when I went to Get- 
tysburg, and saw the graves of thousands of our sol- 
diers, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ . 
Yes, I do love Jesus." And the flowing tears told 
that he was a tender, loving disciple of Christ. Pleas- 
ing foretaste this of the time when kings shall be 



I<s DisrofTse on the 

" niii'siug fathei's*"' to the people of Christ. Assuredly 
"tlie lieanty of Israel is slain upon thy high places." 
It is fitting- that we honor his memory here to-da}^, the 
saered day of God, the day of the resurrection of the 
Saviour whom he loyed. It is fitting that we gather 
in large assembly in this house, that we clothe these 
walls with the symbols of mourning, for Christ's peo- 
ple have lost a friend and brother. 

Thus was Al)raham Lincoln. In this brief, hurried 
and ])artial review of the nobler elements of his char- 
acter, we find him a plain, upright man, who feared 
Cod and regarded man. He has done a great and 
good work. We fondly hoped he might live to see 
tlie end of his term of office, but God, who rules well 
and knows best, has suifered him to fall at the hand 
of the murderer. Let us be thankful that he lived to 
see tlie day-star of peace arise ; to see the militar}' 
power of the rebellion broken ; to know that the Union 
he loved was to be preserved, and that his labors to 
tliar end had l^een blessed with success. Let our 
prayer now Ix^ fervent that he may accomplish more in 
the same direction by his death than he could have 
done by a longer life. 

Here Ic^t me suggest one thought that may perhaps 
console us somewhat in our distress. I have said he 
was humane. It is well he was; we all ought to be: 
but if a sense of justice be not inwrought with it in the 
mind, its results are often pernicious, especially in those 
Avhd are appointed by God "to execute wrath upon 
iiim tiiat doetli evil." Mistaken kindness is sometimes 
very latal in its etfects. To cherish and Avarm the be- 



Death of President TAneoln. 19 

nuinbed ,seri)eiit in the bosom is to court clcatli. 'I'lir 
work of the executive now is in part to bi'in<^ rebels to 
justice. We ha\ e all feared that the President would 
be too kind and forgiving; that deserving- a ])iinisli- 
nient that would forever mark treason as tlie ibiilcst 
of crimes, somethhig to be detested as well as feared, 
he Avoidd not execute u})oii them the penalties of tlie 
law. Is it possible that God has seen that his higliest 
work was done, and that this task should dcNolve u])- 
on another? Is it possible that there is a eoneealed 
mercy to the nation in taking him aAvay at this ei'isis 
and in the height of his earthly glory V Dues God 
mean to teach us that having been just to the slave, 
we must now ])e just to his o})pressor, Avho lias added 
rebellion to tyranny V I dare not say: but let us re- 
member that God still i-eigns; that His mercies \\\\\ 
still be ours, as they have been, if we trust Him. >.'o 
time before could we have spared hiui as well as \u)\\. 
It is well with hini in time, and, we belie\-e, in 
eternity. A life so })ure as his, so devoted to noble 
work, so Inuuble, so trustful iu God and liis Sou 'Jesus 
Christ, will receive its re>vard of rest luid |)eace ami 
joy; Avhile on earth his is 

"'One of the few, the inunortal ujuues 
" That were not boru to die." 

As long as the genius, that inspired our Falhei-s lo 
write the Declaration of Indej)endence, and to main- 
tain it through the privations, toils and bloody saei-i- 
fices of a seven years' war, shall continue to nerve the 



20 Discourse on the 

American people to action, so long will his name be 
cherished and honored; so long as we love simplic- 
ity, truth, honesty, purity, as long will the memory of 
onr martyred President be held in the minds and hearts 
of his fellow-men. He will be remembered to the last 
as one of the jmrest of Patriots, the most honored of 
Rulei's, the wisest of Statesmen, and the noblest of 
Philanthropists. In onr national constellation he will 
shine as a star of the first magnitude, whose light shall 
never grow dim — a star rather whose age shall add to 
its own beauty, lustre and glory. 

Bear with me a moment more while T refer with 
great Iji'evity to the impressive lessons taught us by 
the life and death of our lamented President. 

Man's weakness and mortality in his best estate. 
We are often reminded of this in respect to men in or- 
dinary life. To-day we feel that men — that all men — 
are weak and mortal. President Lincoln rose from 
the humblest to the highest position in the nation, 
perhaps world. Till the age of eighteen, living in the 
forests of Kentucky and Indiana; when old enough, 
working upon his father's land; at nineteen, a hired 
hand upon a Mississippi flat-boat ; at twenty-one, help- 
ing his father to a log cabin in Illinois; at twenty -two, 
assisting in building a boat and floating it down to 
New Orleans; at twenty-three, clerk in a store and 
mill, and a volunteer in a company to flght in the 
Black Hawk war, of which he was chosen captain ; at 
twenty-three and twenty-four, a country store-keeper, 
postmaster, civil engineer, student-at-law, and defeat- 
ed candidate for the legislature ; at twenty-five, a mem- 



Death of President Lincoln. 21 

ber of the legislature, and thus remaining for six years ; 
at twenty-eight, a pi-acticing lawyer; thereafter rising 
rapidly to distinction in his profession, and to promi- 
nence in office, he became at fifty-two the first man in 
the Kepublic, wielding a power such as in all desira- 
ble respects no monarch ever wielded. This man, so 
honored, so exalted, at last is laid low in death, as you 
or 1 might be in a moment's time,— broken like the 
bubble that is the sport of the child. " Verily, every 
man at his best estate is altogether vanity." We do 
well to remember this, and so live that Avhether hum- 
ble or exalted, when the bubble l3iu-sts, when the vapor 
of life is blown away, we shall h'nd in the spirit-land 
and in the garner-house of our Saviour, a golden har- 
vest gathered from seed sown on earth — the seed of 
truth, faith, love. Let us remember that God only is 
great, and fear, love and serve Him. 

We are reminded of the short-lived nature of our 
earthly joys. We have never seen four years like the 
[)ast four. Our hearts have been heavy Avith sorrow. 
We have been anxious, careworn and distressed by 
reason of the threatening condition of our national af- 
fairs, the sacrifices and dangers of our friends if not 
ourselves. Our President shared in these, feeling- 
doubtless more keenly than we did. Finally the glim- 
mering twilight beghis to ajjpear, after the long dark 
night of carnage, death and impending ruin. The 
light increases; there is no longer doubt; the capital 
of the " Confederacy" is ours ; soon its strong defend- 
ers are ours also. The President rejoices; the coun- 
try is happy. The booming cannon, the ringing bells. 



22 Discourse on the 

the rolling drain make every hill-toj) and valley re- 
echo the gladness of the people. IS'ever did oiu' peo- 
ple riot in such demonstrations of joy as they did for 
two weeks, not forgetting to thank God. How sud- 
denly was his joy ended, and ours turned into sorro\v. 
In one day the nation was l30wed in tears. We have 
no heart to think of the occasions for rejoicing. In 
the height of his happiness our leader was stricken 
with death; our joy was dashed as suddenly, though 
our life yet remains. " If a man live many years, and 
rejoice in them all; yet let him remember the days of 
darkness, for they shall l^e many." If Ave havi3 no joys 
but those that earth aftbrds, our hearts are empt}^ and 
})itiable indeed. Tlien let there ever be an luider-cur- 
rent of joy springing from God's throne, from the con- 
scious i)rescnce of Jesus Christ in our hearts. Then, 
too, let earthly sorrow s temper onr earthly joys. 

In noAV closing, I urge you again to remember the 
value of religion. This lesson was taught by the life 
of our Chief Magistrate. He was guided and sustain- 
ed because he believed and trusted in God. He drcAv 
in his wisdom and strength by daily communion with 
the All-wise and Almighty. Keligion rounded and 
pei'fected his character; it secured him the confidence, 
charity and love of the people. Let such men l3e hon- 
ored and exalted, and our government will have fewer 
reproaches, and God w^ill smile upon us. Let his ex- 
ample l)e followed by all the people, and God will 
dwell with us. Peace shall be within our walls, and 
])ros])erity within our palaces. Oh! that the yoimg 
men of the nation would emulate his course. In the 



DeatJi of President Lincoln. 



2S 



death of this wise and good man, let us be deeply and 
everlastingly impressed with the sentiment long ago 
expressed l)y a wise man, ■' The feaii of Goi> is the 
begin:nik(I of a\ isdom ;" and "'^Che path of the 

JUST IS AS A SIIINIXG LIGHT THAT SHTXETH MORE AXD 
MORE LTs^TO THE PEKFE(!T DAY." 




